From Moscow with love

9/11/2002 – The Russians are playing against the Rest of the World – and although they fielded a "dream team" they are not doing well at all. Elsewhere we have reported on the abysmal performance, after eight rounds, of the four Ks. Now our very special correspondent Anna Dergatscheva, who is in Moscow, has sent us a special illustrated report with her impressions of the tournament. Find out why Peter Svidler was hobbling around on crutches or what exactly Judit Polgar is preparing for (psst – motherhood?). You will find Anna's personal report here.

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Russia vs the Rest of the World

Report from Moscow

By Anna Dergatscheva

Our correspondent Anna Dergatscheva was born on 26.02.1969
in Moscow. She studied Russian language and literature.

As the daughter of grandmaster Abram Khasin she was a
keen chess player, going to the same chess school as Jussupow, Krasenkov,
Tschutchelov and Zvaginsev ("but they pulled ahead of me in chess").
Her father was the trainer of Bareev and Gulko.

In 1992 Anna came to Germany as an au-pair girl and married
Peter Daus in Essen a year later. She plays in Germany's top women's division
and in the men's regional league for the chess club SK Holsterhausen.

All pictures in this article were sent to us directly
from Moscow by Anna Dergatscheva

The first round in Moscow was full of surprises. After the openings speeches
(by Vladimir Zirinovski and hockey star Slava Fetisov), in which there was some
lamentation at the absence of top GMs Adams and Topalov in the World team, Russia
went through the first round with a resounding defeat.

The World team

Maybe we were too confident (I still say "we", although I have lived
in the West for a long time now), relying on our "dream team" with
the three great Ks being completely unassailable. But two of the Ks, the 12th
and 13th world champions, both lost their games, Kasparov to Vassily Ivanchuk,
who really appears to be Garry's prime nemesis.

The start of Ivanchuk vs Kasparov. In the background ex world champion Vassily
Smyslov, FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, ex world champion Boris Spassky,
and ex FIDE president Florencio Campomanes (right).

Smirin vs Karpov about to start

Anatoly Karpov was not not at all in form. He played much too slowly, and against
Ilya Smirin he almost appeared to fall asleep, After 20 moves he had just seconds
left on his clock. The loss was what could have been expected in these circumstances.

Peter Svidler coping with his soccer injury

A preparation camp in Zvenigorod was supposed to strengthen the team. Apart
from chess there was a fair amount of physical training. Unfortunately Peter
Svidler tore a tendon while playing football on a very uneven field. He has
to use crutches during this tournament. Fortunately this does not seem to affect
his chess abilities and he is playing with good success in Moscow.

Alexei Shirov and wife Viktoria Cmylite

The World team was greatly relieved after the first day, with Shirov and Ivanchuk
laughing and joking during the press conference. Only the reigning FIDE world
champion Ponomariov was not so relaxed. He claimed that the direction this tournament
was going, after two rounds, was not encouraging: +2, +1 – we know where
this is leading. Maybe he was just being a bit flippant.

Anand, Svidler (on crutches) and Judit Polgar

GM Anand won both his game quite effortlessly. First he defeated the young
Russian champion Alexander Motylev, who played a somewhat strange game. Vishy's
second game was nominated the best of round two. It was a brilliant win against
Vadim Zvjaginzev. Naturally Aruna Anand is at the side of the Indian Super-GM.

Preparing for motherhood? Judit Polgar

A weak link in the World team would appear to be Judit Polgar. I personally
believe that the strongest female player of all times is preparing for motherhood.
Perhaps that is her highest priority at the moment.

It is a fantastic chess festival, with many very illustrious visitors. I can
only name a few: Vassily Smyslov, Boris Spassky, David Bronstein, Nana Ioseliani,
Andre Liliental and many younger players. Alexandra Kosteniuk and her whole
family is there as well.

This is going to be an exciting event, and I will try to keep you informed
with pictures from Moscow. There are 300 journalists here and 2500 spectators
following the games. I will stay here right to the end.

Picture Gallery

Smog over Moscow – and the crowds flocked to the Kremlin to watch chess

See also

11/28/2018 – The moment we've all been waiting for! Live games (for Premium members) from the 2018 World Championship match in London. Every two games will be followed by a rest day until Game 12 (if necessary) on November 26th which will be preceded by an additional rest day. All rounds start at 15:00 UT (London time) / 16:00 CEST / 10:00 EST. If needed there would be a rapid tiebreak match on Wednesday, November 28th. | Photos: Patricia Claros

See also

8/27/2018 – Live games and commentary from Saint Louis! Fabiano Caruana, Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian tied for first place, while Caruana also tied for fourth place in the Grand Chess Tour standings with Wesley So, forcing a playoff match to be held on Tuesday. | Graphic: Saint Louis Chess Club

Video

On this 60 mins video we are going to concentrate on a simple, very solid idea in the main line Scandinavian, which even Magnus Carlsen has used to win games. Black focusses on making his life easy in the opening and forces White to work very hard to get advantage – but it is doubtful if White can get an advantage. Club players are always on the lookout for effective, time-saving solutions and here we have just that. Accompany FIDE Senior Trainer and IM Andrew Martin on this 60 mins video. You can learn a new opening system in 60 mins and start to play it with confidence on the very same day!